Bits and Bobs

Random happenings in early March...

They took a bus, a train and a bus to get there but had a great time at the museum.  And Stinkerbell got to have Cracker Barrel for lunch (lucky her).

This one has an allergy to bugs.  One bite did this (and has done it before).

It rained so hard it overflowed our pool.

Birds, birds and more birds.

Those are the instructions for Stinkerbells pull up machine.  Don't think they could have printed them any smaller.

I got it together.  Now if only she could do a pull up...Check back - we are working on it.

Her sister, on the other hand, can already do it...

I had some "help" in making the new wreaths for my front doors.

Another Magical Weekend

It had been a whole 6 weeks since we had been to Disney.  High time to remedy that.  And since Nana had just had a hip replaced, we thought we would go test it out by doing a little walking.  We were only headed up for the weekend so we had to make the most of the time we did have.  Friday night we headed over to Hollywood Studios for a quick bite to eat and to see the Fantasmic show since we had never seen it before.  We were back and snuggled in our Disney themed beds (an Airbnb just offsite) by 10 pm.  We had a full day tomorrow and wanted to be well rested.

Epcot was our park of choice for our only full day.  And we were lucky enough that we were there just before the Flower and Garden Festival started because the crowds had not yet descended but they had almost completed the decorating.  It was gorgeous.

I think my favorite part of the festival was the topiaries.  They were in each land and all along the paths.  It seemed like every character you could think of was carved out of a bush.  I will give you some of my favorites...

We rode a bunch of rides with almost no wait at all.  It is truly the best time of year to go if you can manage it.  And we stopped for some sweet treats to refuel us before riding a few more rides...

We had some refreshing drinks with our tasty dinner in France.

And then we said goodnight to Epcot.

We were at it pretty bright and early again the next morning.   We had to leave in the late afternoon so we wanted to make sure we got the most out of our trip.  We stopped for a quick shot in front of the castle before hitting some attractions.

And by luck, just after we came around the side of the castle on our way to some ice cream, we ran into this...

Another purely magical weekend!

And the weather thought so too as we saw this on the drive home...

Bits and Bobs

Between gymnastics, cheerleading, track and irish dance practices, I spend a lot of time in the car as a chauffer.  Which means I also video chat quite often with the child left home to do her homework...This is what it usually looks like...

That is one happy dog.  She has a new spring in her step since we moved here.

So proud of this one for making the Gymnastics pre-team.  We are playing catch up since we missed a few years of training in Germany.

I entered my first photography contest ever.  This was from Round 9 (of 12).  I made it to the finals with at least on photo - but we won't know results until later in March.

Why do these guys keep popping up and scaring the daylights out of me?

Look - all of the outdoor furniture is actually outside!

Because we finally have furniture for inside!  (I ordered the couches on October 14 - received them over 4 months later!)

Someone thinks they are fantastic!

Warm enough to be back in the pool without needing to heat it so we had A over for a swim.

This one has a death wish.

Happiest of Happy Birthday's to Dulce!  She's 8 (or 56).

Puttering around

Last weekend was a long one.  And I mean that literally as we had Monday off because of President's Day.  So we did what we usually do on long weekends - we packed our bags and headed somewhere.  This time we were off to Nana and Grampa's since we hadn't seen them in a while and not since Nana had her surgery.  We didn't have anything grand planned (again, Nana just had major surgery by having a hip replaced) but we did make it out to play miniature golf - twice.  Yep, twice.  We would have played all 36 holes the first day but they were fixing the back half of the course so it was closed that morning.  And we didn't want to simply play the same 18 holes again so we just decided we would come back again the next morning. 

It was something we had not done in a couple of years and I always forget how much fun it can be.  It took the girls a little while to figure out the finesse to the game (Stinkerbell wanted to hit the ball as hard as she could; MadHatter had a bit more precision but less patience) but in the end, they both did fantastically.  Now, my game on the other hand...that will just take a bit more practice.

Day one tally.

Day 2 tally - everyone did better.  Except me - I got the exact same score.

Will you be my...

We started celebrating Valentine's Day a little early this year.  

On the 1st of February, I put up some red fringe and the words "I love you because" on each of the girl's bedroom doors.  Then, each morning, I added another heart with a reason why I love them so.  I steered clear of the cliches and tried to come up with some empowering statements (and some silly sentimental ones too).  I think I succeeded because the girls couldn't wait to read what I had written each day and I love that it made the day more than just about chocolates and flowers.  I think we have found a new tradition for Valentine's Day! 

Stinkerbell's Door

MadHatter's Door